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A former contract data analyst was sentenced on Thursday, August 13, to 24 months in prison for trying to extort $2.5 million from the company that hired him. Cameron Curry, 27, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was also ordered to serve a year of supervised release and pay a money judgment of $7,540.92, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said.
Curry was contracted as a data analyst for about six months. The role gave him access to the company's data files, personnel records and other corporate information. Prosecutors said he built the scheme after learning his contract would not be renewed.
Between December 11, 2023 and January 24, 2024 he sent more than 60 emails to employees and executives under the alias "Loot." The messages demanded $2.5 million in cryptocurrency and threatened to publish sensitive corporate records and employee personal data. He also threatened to damage the company's reputation by reporting the breach to regulators himself.
BleepingComputer reported that the target was Brightly Software, a Siemens-owned asset management and maintenance software firm formerly known as SchoolDude. Brightly employs more than 700 people and serves over 12,000 clients worldwide. Curry's contract ended on December 10. The first email went out the next day, and the company later paid $7,540 in Bitcoin to a wallet he controlled.
"If you wish to reclaim your data, we recommend doing so promptly at 2.5 million USD in order to save your company and stocks," one of the messages said, adding that the demand would rise by $100,000 each month.
The FBI searched Curry's home on January 24, 2024 and seized electronic devices. Forensic analysis tied him to the Loot alias. A federal jury convicted him in March 2026 on six counts of transmitting interstate communications with intent to extort. Judge Kenneth D. Bell of the Western District of North Carolina presided over the three-day trial and handed down the sentence.
The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office with help from the FBI Charlotte Field Office. Brightly separately disclosed a breach of its SchoolDude platform in 2023, unrelated to this case, in which attackers took credentials and personal data belonging to nearly 3 million customers and users.
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